Picker



March 10, 1942. Li J cAg TER' 2,275,728 1 PI-CKER 7 I Filed Jan. 10, .1941

Enventor; TER.

LATT J. CHI? I Gttorneg 5 Patented Mar. 10, 1942 PICKER Latt J. Carter, Kannapolis, N. 0., assignor to v E. H. JacobsManufacturing Company, Charlotte, N. 0., a corporation of Connecticut Application January 10, 1941, Serial No. 373,921'

1 Claim.

This invention relates to loom pickers, and more especially to an article of this type formed by winding a piece of material upon itself to the approximate final shape and then placing the same'into a vulcanizing mold to produce a finished picker.

Pickers are employed at each end of the lay of a loom for checking and expelling the loom shuttle from the shuttle boxes. The impact between the shuttle and the picker often causes severe internal strains, resulting in the head of the picker expanding beyond the elastic limit and consequently distorting and bursting the same. With the advent of high speed looms, capable of producing 180 to 240 picks per minute, they defects in the conventional pickers have become more apparent, because the increased speed likewise increases the impact as well as the internal heat during operation.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a picker constructed with a view of eliminating the above-named difiiculties as well as to produce one having a longer life and an economical cost. In order to accomplish these results, a picker is preferably wound from a continuous tape of rubberized fabric to the approximately final shape and then placed in a mold where it is compressed and vulcanized into final form.

The head of the picker is spirally wound around an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the picker stick thereby causing all of the layers of material when in shuttle receiving position to be disposed transversely of the line of travel of the shuttle. Such a construction materially reduces the amount of expansion in the picker head because the layers will offer more resistance to lateral expansion due to the shuttle impacts, when arranged in this manner.

It is another object of this invention to provide a picker of the class described having a bore or breather hole through the impact receiving portion to permit the passage of air therethrough for cooling purposes.

It is another object of this invention to provide a picker having a reinforcing band or winding around the head portion which will keep the head portion from spreading as a result of shuttle impacts.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a picker having an elongated depression in the head portion for receiving the nose of the shuttle. This feature is very important since it eliminates the necessity of making precise vertical adjustments of the picker on the picker stick. When a round depression is employed, the

center of the depression must be adjusted so that the nose of the shuttle will strike it centrally, otherwise the shuttle will vibrate while travelling through the warp shed and produce a kinky filling in the cloth.

? canized;

Figure 3 is a sectional plan view taken along the line 33 in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is an isometric view of a portion of a slightly modified form of picker after having been wound to substantially the final shape;

Figure 5 is an isometric view of the picker shown in Figure 4 with an additional reinforcing winding placed over the head portion;

Figure 6 is an isometric view of the finished picker after having been placed in a mold and vulcanized;

Figure 7 is a sectional the line 'I-l in Figure 6.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the

plan view taken along numeral l0 denotes a suitable core portion which forms a part of a picker head. This core portion is constructed by taking a piece of web material such as tape, fabric, cordage, leather or the like and winding the same upon itself about a suitable 'rod or pin not shown, which pin is adapted to leave a breather hole l2 when removed from the core. After the core ID has been formed by a plurality of spirally wound convolutions of web H, another opening I3 is formed for the reception of a picker stick by the continued winding of this same piece of tape. This tape is wound in a spiral manner as before, but the perimeter of the winds or convolutions are sufficiently large to provide a collar or loop portion I4 which surrounds opening l3 and also surrounds core ID to form picker head I8. The material I I from which the picker is formed is preferably rubberized fabric, although it is to be understood that many suitable types of material may be employed for this purpose with good results.

After winding the picker as shown in Figure 1, it is often preferable to sever the lower edge theroef along dotted line l6 so that the bottom side of the picker will be beveled with relation to the top side, and therefore more closely fit the bottom of shuttle box when the picker is in extended position, that is when the picker is farthest from the center of the loom.

The picker as shown in Figure 1, is then placed in a suitable vulcanizing mold and pressed in finished form such as shown in Figure 2. When placed in the mold, a vertically disposed slot I1 is provided in the head portion of the picker, which slot is adapted to receive the point or nose of the shuttle after the picker has been mounted upon the picker stick.

It will be noted that the head portion l8 of the picker comprises the core II and a portion of the additional windings of the web ll which.

encircle the core and also the picker stickopening 13. In order to provide an effective means for holding the picker on the picker stick, a suitable hole I9 is provided in the side of collar portion l4 through which a suitable screw is adapted to be inserted and fastened into the picker stick.

There is a very decided advantage in having an elongated slot 11 in the face of the picker stick head l8, because this slot will eliminate the necessity of making a fine or precise vertical adjustment of the. picker upon the upper end of the picker stick. Instead, it is only necessary to vertically position the picker in substantially the proper location and then fasten it to the picker stick. When the loom is placed in operation, the nose of the shuttle will strike the slot I! at a point about midway the ends thereof, and upon the repeated impacts delivered. by the picker to the shuttle, an enlarged hole will be provided in the slot which will be at the exact position for the reception of the shuttle point or nose. The depth of the slot I! is somewhat shallower than the average depth of the hole which will be produced by the shuttle point during operation.

It will also be noted that the axis or breather hole 12 about which the core H and subsequent windings which form the picker stick opening l3 are wound, is transversely disposed to the line of travel of the shuttle. This method of winding the picker head places all the layers therein, substantially at right angles to the shuttle and consequently prevents undue lateral expansion of the picker head. In other Words, if the shuttle should strike the core H in a'linement with its axis of winding I2, there would be a greater tendency for the core to unwind and expand the head than is the case when the shuttle strikes the side of the core as shown, because, it is necessary to tear the layers of the core in the latter instance before material expansion of the picker head will take place. As a matter of additional reinforcement of the picker head 18, suitable rivets or bolts 20 are provided which penetrate the head at points between breather hole l2 and picker stick holes l3.

Figures 4, 5, 6, and '7 show a slightly modified form of the invention employing essentially the same principles except that an additional reinforcing windingisprovided over the picker stick head to prevent expansion thereof. In this form of the invention, a picker 25 is provided which comprises a reinforcing band such as a web 26, said web being wound around a suitable rod or pin, not shown, to form a core 21. Although a web material is used as a reinforcing band, it is not intended that the invention be limited to such. A metallic reinforcing may be used with very effective results. When the rod is removed a hole 28 is left in the central portion thereof. Upon the completion of the core 21 the windings are enlarged sufficiently to form a loop or collar 29 and also to provide a vertically disposed hole 30 through which the picker stick is adapted to be. placed. When forming collar 30, the additional windings also complete the picker head 3|. As in the preceding case, the layer of material 26 is preferably made of a rubberized fabric which can be subsequently vulcanized when placed in a mold. This winding likewise consists of a spirally wound piece of rubberized web material 33 and upon the completion of this winding to the point shown in Figure 5, the combined assembly is placed in a mold to form a finished picker as shown in Figure 6. In this finished picker, a vertically disposed slot 34 is provided in the head thereof for the reception of the shuttle point or nose and also the entire picker is vulcanized to hold the layers in the desired position. As in the preceding form of the invention, a hole 35 is provided in the side of the picker collar 29 for accommodating a screw, rivet, bolt or the like, for securing the picker on the upper end of the picker stick.

In the drawing and specification, there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the appended claim.

I claim:

A loom picker having a head portion for receiving the nose of a shuttle and having a tail portion provided with a vertically disposed hole for reception of a picker stick, the entire head portion including the front surface which receives the impactof the nose of the shuttle being spirally wound from its center to its outer surface continuously in the same direction from a length of tape whose longitudinal axis is susbtantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the picker stick hole, the axis of the spiral windings being substantially in the center of the head portion of the finished picker, the outer layers of the spirally wound head portions being elongated to provide the picker stick opening, and a pair of horizontally and transversely disposed rivets penetrating substantially all of the layers of the spiral windings of the head portion, including the outer layers and being disposed above and below the point of impact of the nose of the shuttle.

LATT J CARTER. 

